5 Reasons Vimeo Beats YouTube For Your Business

April 15, 2014

I can already hear the YouTube mob grabbing their pitchforks and lighting their torches, so I’ll start by giving YouTube its deserved praise. There’s no doubt that it is the internet’s go-to big dog of video hosting. It also doesn’t hurt to be backed by a modest little corporation named Google . Over 1 billion unique visitors and 6 billion hours of video watched every month make Youtube the people’s champion.

But the defending champ has a top contender by the name of Vimeo gaining quickly on its heels. Founded in 2004 (a year before YouTube) Vimeo hasn’t seen the meteoric rise of its competitor, but has already managed to accrue a hefty following.

Here are a few reasons Vimeo might be right for your business.

1. FluffTubeA lot of us would agree that in the world of business, quality trumps quantity and this is where YouTube falters. When you have 100 hours of video uploaded every minute, you can’t expect all of it to be polished gold. The amount of fluff on YouTube drastically deludes the amount of quality content you can find on the site. Vimeo on the other hand is much more strict with the content of its uploaded videos. Needless to say, you’re unlikely to find an hour long looped clip of cats being adorable on Vimeo.

2. Wanted: Pro’s OnlyYou’ll be hard pressed to find someone that hasn’t used YouTube before, and unfortunately that massive audience is one of the reasons for so much of the clutter on the site. Vimeo’s entire platform and community is much more professional than YouTube’s. A more niche viewer base and quality content is what Vimeo prides itself on. Instead of watching and sharing everything and the kitchen sink you can create and share content that truly engages.

3. The Game of AdsYou won’t find a fraction of the annoying advertisements preluding your video on vimeo as you do on youtube. This means practically no annoying distractions keeping viewers from your content. If you’re into paying for ad space before, after, during, and sprinkled around videos, you may want to stick to YouTube.

4. Customization is KeyThe smallest things can make the biggest difference and when it comes to customization, Vimeo doesn’t disappoint. You can customize your video to include your brand logo (instead of just having a YouTube logo on it) or password-protect videos to control who can view them. Those are just some of the features that you can benefit from that you wont find with YouTube.

5. Cleanliness is Next to GodlinessWhen you visit Vimeo.com you can tell right away that the overall feel of the site is a lot cleaner and more inviting than YouTube. It’s about finding the sweet spot, between showing off your content and avoiding clutter, that Vimeo seems to have mastered. It’s another bonus for engagement, as your audience is more likely to stick around.

Now we’re not saying that Vimeo is the end-all and be-all of video hosting and sharing. It does have it’s downfalls, such as significantly smaller traffic to the site. As well, some of the features may require you to upgrade to a paid account to utilize them and there are video upload caps. Still, as far as the more professional business world is concerned, it looks like the web might have a new champion.